Eric Arnow has his own web site now. For years I've been putting his
letters from Asia here. From now on they'll go on his site, the
Bumble Buddhist which
also now has all the previous ones from cuke and photos more. - dc

I am here in the 40,000 population city of Fang, near
the Myanmar border, having just spent a few hours on a fairly
uninteresting tour. I got off the bus here, having decided to escape
Chiang Mai.

Things were getting hot in Chiang Mai, too hot, and
there were lots of guns on the street.

You see, it is the hot season here, with temperatures
over 100 degrees, and time for the annual water festival. On every street
corner, young people are toting big and small water pistols and rifles
which shoot a good ten or more feet. Not to mention pails and buckets.

Well, they are usually polite about it. If you hold
up your hand to indicate no thanks, they usually leave you alone. So I
hopped a bus to Fang, and found that the Water Festival is all over
Thailand, and I have gotten soaked sometimes voluntarily, sometimes
sprinkled or doused involuntarily. But remember, it is well over 90 or
even 100.

You dry off within an hour, and as long as you aren't
wearing anything special it's really a relief.

My only bad moment was when, as part of my day tour
of a couple of hill tribe villages, and a dunk in a small river, that my
passport got a bit wet. And it didn't help when some kids dumped a pail of
water at me, getting it wetter still. Anyway, the villages were not much
to see, except to see how maybe at least 2 billion people live. Either
straw huts or cinder block with straw roofs, women with teeth blackened
from betel nut juice, barefoot kids, etc. I brought oranges for the kids
who seemed to like them. I refused to bring candy that the guide
suggested.

As for my news update from around the world, here it
is.

Last March 28 was Army Day in Myanmar. The newspaper
of Record, The New Light of Myanmar, reported that the military was of
great importance to sustaining peace and creating democracy in Myanmar,
and warned of foreign elements that needed to be guarded against.

They even said that "a certain super Power" incited
unrest within the country, and pushed small countries around. But they
didn't say what the certain superpower was.

I assumed it was the USSR, but that broke up 15 years
ago. Could it be Estonia? Probably not, too small. So I guess I won't know
what country they were talking about. But it took a lot of courage to
raise the issue.

But I sure am glad they are protecting the people of
Myanmar so well.

Anyway that night, there was a TV movie on, and I got
to watch Myanmar television.

It was a touching coming of age story about a young
army officer, as he ordered his troops around on the parade field. He and
everyone else were wearing pure white uniforms, and a 50ish woman was
watching from the viewing stand. Probably she was his mother. But
remember, the only Myanmar language (you are not to say Burmese, as that
is old fashioned and a hold over from colonialist "Burma" ) I know is
Mingalaba--blessings and hello, and Chezu dinbadeh--thank you. So I can
only guess.

So there is this young officer shouting orders to the
troops, who dutifully move their rifles in crisp formation, wearing their
sparkling white uniforms. It is very clear from the movie who the good
guys are in Myanmar. They are really lucky to have such good people as the
military.

Anyway, at the end of the scene, the young man
approaches an older man who has lots of medals on his chest, probably a
general, and after presentation of a medal, the two embrace.

So I assume that the young man is the son of the
general. The son is practically in tears of emotion. I was very moved. So
were the people watching, who smiled and commented in Myanmar language. So
you can be certain that the Army of Myanmar is really doing a great job.

There were other adventures I had while I was there.
It is clear that the country is struggling. One of the goals of the
military government is to modernize the country. So I guess that means
there is room for development. And the military is making Myanmar safe for
democracy.

Meanwhile, I got an email about a news event in
America. I don't know if it is true or not but seemed worth mentioning. I
seems that President Bush visited a group of Indian leaders recently. As a
side note, after getting all wet the other day, I passed a bookstore and
found an old copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a history of the
Indian Wars between 1860-1890.

Except for a few skirmishes and short lived
victories, it is a heartbreaking story, noted in a quoted review by Geoff
Wolff of Newsweek.

"There were atrocity stories, dozens of them. I guess
the mutilation of Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek
was the worst, if only because the victims were friendly toward their
murderers and were bayoneted, many of them, where they stood huddled
beneath an American flag.

"It falls to a journalist reviewing the books of our
days to treat the dreadful as though it were commonplace. The books I
review...report the destruction of the land,,, they detail the perversion
of justice; they reveal the national stupidities. None of them--not
one--has saddened me and shamed me as this book has. Because the
experience of reading it has made me realize for once and all that we really don't know who we are, or where we came from or
what we have done or why [my
emphasis]"

After 911, a friend of mine said "The American people
don't know what they have got, but they had better wake up." Indeed.

The white men's accounts of things at that time
remind me of recent news reports. We really don't know who we are, or
where we came from or what we have done, or why. But we are doing a great
job helping the Iraqi people, rest assured.

So anyway, there is President Bush with the Indians,
giving a speech about all the great things his administration is doing for
the Indians, and after his speech, they give him an award and give him an
Indian name, "Walking Eagle", and the President, apparently feeling very
pleased leaves the event.

So the reporters ask the Indians what the
significance of the name, Walking Eagle, is.

"A walking eagle is an eagle so full of shit that it
cannot fly".

Lurching on to a news story from China, it seems that
some Buddhist monks were fighting about a cat and who had rights to it. So
the abbot showed up and demanded a quick response; otherwise, he would cut
the cat in two and give each group half. (Maybe he had read the Bible and
King Solomon??) Anyway, no one responded, so he cut the cat.

Later on his chief disciple showed up and the Abbot
asked him what he would a have done. The disciple took his sandals off,
put them on top of his head, and walked out. The abbot said, "if only you
had been there, the cat would still be alive."